Department of Human Services (Social Services)
A Model Approach to Self-Reliance and Economic Empowerment
The United Training and Employment Center, Inc. (UTEC) is a 501(c)(3) Career Development, School Referral and Job Placement agency that is staffed by seasoned professional counselors. UTEC’s Founder and President is Clayton A. Roberts, a U.S. Air Force Korean War Veteran. The original UTEC mission and vision was to provide job skills, training and support for retirees, those discharged from the Armed Services and those who seem to be inextricably tied to the public benefits system, for various socioeconomic reasons, including not actively seeking gainful employment. This mission has been expanded to include job skills training for senior citizens, which enhances the likelihood that this program can be successfully replicated in other jurisdictions.
UTEC looks forward to the opportunity to introduce our training model to the various Departments of Corrections (Parole & Probation) and Human Services (Social Services), as well as the many Senior Citizens Group in jurisdictions nationwide. Our plan is to accept referrals of potential students from these organizations to be interviewed, evaluated and sometimes tested by our counselors before being enrolled in your job skills facility. This process is designed to ensure the best chances for successfully completing the program.
During the enrollment process, each potential student is processed to receive a federal grant to pay his or her full tuition for the classes. With the extensive curriculum offered your participating school facility, UTEC represents a new and improved extension of service toward the future of these municipalities that can readily be applied, internally and externally, either as a core requirement or as a “pilot project” leading to a mandatory stipulation by these Departments. The goal of the program is for enrollees to gain the skills they need to find and sustained employment in the workforce.
- Within one (1) year or less, students who successfully complete the program will be trained to qualify for employment (i.e., this will reduce the operating cost of the program by moving students off grants and onto the payrolls of outside organizations)
- Long-time recipients of public benefits would decrease in number, and countless people now estranged or marginalized from society would be productive citizens
- Persons considered “unemployable” could become employed.
- Historically, large numbers of welfare recipients collected public benefits from social service agencies with no real intention of seeking skills training or gainful employment. One solution to this long-term problem is to condition future benefits to certain of these recipients based on an evaluation for competency and fitness to participate in skills training and/or job placement.
- By using UTEC’s proven training methodology at participating schools located throughout the City, a large number of citizens now on public assistance would be enrolled in skills training, and ultimately, placed in some form of gainful employment.
- The increase in self-reliance and economic empowerment that will flow from UTEC’s program will have a direct correlation between reduced pay-outs to recipients who are now earning salaries, and an increasein the local tax base, i.e., this program will save money for the entire community.
The Department of Human Services (Social Services) deals with some of the most vulnerable segments of our community. It stands to reason that consistent re-evaluation of this “system of service” must be constantly scrutinized (and when appropriate, modified) to maintain the highest degree of educational impact and relevance. Skill training to qualify for gainful employment, now more than ever, by and through an agency that specializes in jobs skills training and job placement is absolutely imperative to fill this critical need. UTEC is that agency.